From the Plasma to the Iron

 

After hours of measuring and re-measuring, using the South arch for reference, I finally feel confident as to where the ends of the East & West arches need to be cut off. (plus a few extra inches, just in case)  It was handy having a rotating laser and a wood template of the arch to help get it right.

David Adamson then came over with his Plasma Cutter to cut the beams.  I tried my hand at the cutter but it wasn’t very pretty.  Good thing the ends will get finished off by a professional welder when we erect the steel.

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David took over, much more sure handed, while I held the cut off end from falling down the hill.

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Three down, one more to go.

Now we can move on to the next step of supporting the arches in place ready to weld the “legs” on and then bolting them to the foundation.

Thanks, “Doyle”,  I mean David.

2 comments

M & D
You certainly are not afraid to tackle any job but glad you did hand over the torch to the expert in the final welding!  Will look forward to when the last two arches go up and you start  “weaving” the bars to fortify the structure.  Hope you continue to have such glorious weather (this is Oregon right?) for the rest of your summer!
Really love seeing what all you are doing on this building and the site!
Sunday, May 31, 2009 – 10:14 PM
Jeff
I stood well back but not out of fear! The plasma cutter kept tripping the breaker and I was stationed at the electrical box to re-set the breaker every few minutes.
Monday, June 1, 2009 – 05:28 PM

Arch Angle Part II

We are back after 9 days in Michigan and the weather this weekend is glorious.  I got a chance to use my new $75.00 Craigs List radial arm saw. (our old chop saw died)  I love having an open air work shop, except for the mosquitoes.

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The East and West endpastedGraphic_1.pdf retaining wall arches will need to be cut short and welded in place. We are building braces to hold the arches in the proper position to facilitate this.